s was mingled with a whisper coming
from the birch grove:

"Hush! Some people are listening!"

In fact, on the road passing through the grove, several human figures
appeared in the distance. They were walking very slowly. But the
singer heard neither Golda's warning nor the sound of the approaching
steps. The second verse of the song resounded over the meadow:

"O, my people's spirit, say, where is thy throne? Are the roses of
Zion all faded and gone? Are the cedars of Lebanon all broken down?
O, my people's spirit, say, where is thy crown?"

The last line of the song was still vibrating when, from the road
passing through the grove, three men entered the meadow. They were
dressed in long, black holiday clothes, and were girded with red
handkerchiefs, because it was not permitted to carry them on Sabbath,
but being used to gird the clothes were considered as part of the
attire, and thus it was not a sin to wear them in that way.

In the centre was the cantor's father, Jankiel Kamionker, and on
either side were Abraham Ezofowich, Haim's father, and Morejne
Calman, the father of Aryel. Notwithstanding the darkness, the
fathers recognised their sons in the last rays of the daylight. The
voices of the young men trembled, became quiet, and then were
silent--only one voice sang further:

"Wilt thou never emerge from the darkness, despair? Will thy sweet
songs of thanks ne'er resound in the air?"

It was Meir's voice.

The dignified men, passing through the meadow, stopped and turned
toward the group of young men, and at that moment the manly voice was
joined by the pure, sonorous voice of Golda, who, seeing the angry
faces of the men, began to sing with Meir as though she wished to
join him in common courage, and perhaps in common peril.

And paying no attention to either his comrades' silence or the
threatening figures standing in the meadow the joined voices sang:

"Let the wisdom of Heaven knock at thy door, And quiet the grief that
has made thy heart sore; And bid the Angel of Knowledge come down,
Restoring to thee thy lost glorious crown. We beseech thee to chase
the dark shadows away, And the light of God's truth will turn night
into day."

The song had only three verses, so with the last verse the two voices
became silent. The dignitaries of the community turned toward the
town, and talking loudly and angrily they went in the direction of
the Ezofowich house.

Abraham, Saul's son, was quite different fr